Limbaugh explains why his Joplin speech was not political

On his nationally syndicated radio program today, Rush Limbaugh, who spoke at Landreth Park in Joplin Monday night after bringing a refrigerator truck of tea,explained why his speech was non-political:

I did not go nonpolitical yesterday because I don't believe things. The circumstance yesterday was what guided me. I was not there to push a political person. I was there to push a political idea, but not by identification. I think there were people in that audience yesterday -- let me exclude the audience. Let me put it this way. When people around the country hear about my speech and how unabashedly pro-America it was, I will become their enemy. There are people who do not want that version of America heralded. There are people who do not believe in the greatness of this country as founded. That's one of the primary problems we have and many of them are serving in power right now. We've elected a bunch of these kinds of people. Political parties stand for things. One political party is rooted in 100% reality. Another political party is rooted in deniability, total denial of reality.


Now, my decision to go nonpolitical yesterday was instinctive, and it was because I asked to go there, I asked to speak. I wanted to honor America, and I wanted to honor the people of Joplin, and I wanted to speak to them as somebody who doesn't live there who is aware of their problem and respects what they've gone through and believes in them, believes in their ability to rebound and let them know that there are millions of other Americans who believe the same thing about them. I wanted it to be uplifting. I could have easily, at the end of every paragraph or sentence in that speech I made yesterday, I could have launched into a political diatribe that would have made brilliant sense about things. I could have taken the occasion yesterday to warn people of what I think are the forces in this country that are trying to retard this country's rebirth, economic growth, for whatever reasons. I just sensed this was not the occasion. That's not why they were there. In fact, they were there for a night in Joplin to try to forget all that happened since the tornado.

There weren't even any Salvation Army tents or other relief organization tents. There was no fundraising going on. There was no donating going on. Nobody there was asking for contributions from anybody. They wanted a day off. Today they got back to all that in Joplin. But I think this country, as I say here every day, we're faced with severe consequences in our future if serious changes are not made, and I think the changes that need to be made are rooted in what I said. Even though it was nonpolitical in the sense that I didn't mention the words conservative or liberal, I didn't mention any politicians by name, but what I did say in a lot of people's minds was highly controversial and political. And that's a hard, cold reality you've got to understand.

To a lot of people, that was a purely political speech yesterday. Pro-America. You know the kind of people that I'm talking about. But yesterday was really an event about the people of Joplin, their problems and the birth of our country, what it meant to me, and that's what I was telling them. Celebrating our revolution, why we're the greatest country on earth. I wanted them to know why I think we're the greatest country because in learning that, realizing that, believing that, lie our solutions, folks.